How to Sell Advice

The three core ways to get more clients.

That's we're going to talk about now.

And let's be honest marketing
your client's business.

Is not the same as
marketing your own business.

So there's a lot of
marketers who listen to this.

And they may be thinking of themselves.

I'm I'm good at my craft.

I get good results for my
clients and I'm a good marketer.

And yet it can be very difficult
to market for yourself.

Can be very hard to see objectively your
own situation can be very hard to write.

Copy.

For yourself, it can be very
hard to position yourself.

And it can be very hard to just sort
of to do the mechanical things needed

to get clients consistently over time.

And so, um, the one thing that
I just want to say, look, It

doesn't make you a bad marketer.

If you have difficulty getting new
clients, there's just a framework.

That you can think about and the different
way to think about getting more clients.

The may help you.

Create necessary structures and pieces.

To attract more clients, your business.

And you've got to remember that consulting
clients in particular, you want to

design them in a way that their longterm.

Engagements with
long-term thinking people.

And so I have some clients that
I've spent between two and $300,000.

Total with me over, you
know, four or five years.

And so these are, these are really.

Valuable clients and you don't
need necessarily a lot of them,

you know, I work with between seven
and 10 clients at any given time.

For my consulting work different than
my coaching and membership stuff.

But that is more than enough to
sustain a multiple six figures

business and more than enough
to keep me busy all year round.

So that's what I want to
talk to you about today.

And.

We'll jump right into it.

So let's get into the.

The pillars that we're talking about,
let's find a way to put structure to

this, that it feels a little bit less.

Nebulous and it makes it easier for you to
break it all down and Creating that system

that you would create for your clients.

You know, if you're
like me, you're building

Structure with your clients and then
you're turning it into a system.

So let's do the same for you.

So number one is looking good on paper.

And what that means is if I
refer someone to you, do you

look like a credible choice?

Do you say you do the things that I'm.

That, um, you know, that, that, that
you want people to, to know you for.

Do I, if I, you know, just thinking
in terms of referrals alone, would I

feel comfortable referring somebody
you, because you seem credible

and trustworthy on paper, meaning.

All your messaging and your positioning
and your content, everything about it,

which we'll talk about, stands out.

As being relevant to the person
I want to refer you to, then that

makes you a good referral candidate.

I can't tell you how many times
I've referred people, but I've been

like, you have to basically ignore
their website because a, it does.

It's not good.

It doesn't exist, but they're
really good at their job.

Uh, so, you know, it kind of creates
a little bit of a difficult scenario

where people are putting their.

Reputation on the line
to refer clients to you.

And then if you don't
look it on paper that.

Typically people will just, don't fewer
people will want to refer people to you.

That's number one.

Number two, is that when people
do come to you, let's say through

organic means through your content.

If you don't look at it on paper.

And what I mean by that is credible.

That you have in showing that
you have experienced proof, this.

You know, signals.

And the signs that you
are good at what you do.

So if your positioning is
off, your credibility is off.

And there's nowhere that really
tells your story, then it's

going to be really hard for.

People to trust you whether they came
from a referral or not, especially as

a marketing consultant, but any kind
of consultant, any kind of expert.

So you want to look really
good on papers to that.

You're relevant to people that you want to
serve and that when people refer people to

you, you are an obvious choice for them.

And when you go out and market
yourself, you've reached out to

someone, you talk to someone.

That they look at you and say, if you
look, you look exactly like what I'm

looking for, or at least pretty close,
reasonably close to what I'm looking for.

So number one is looking good on paper
and that that's really about positioning.

Around who your target market is.

Getting clear on what
problem you help them solve.

And who you help solve it
for their target market.

Um, two is the credibility to
solve that How are you credible?

What's your story?

Why should I believe you can help me?

Why would I take a risk
on working with you?

And that's a really big challenge that.

We all need to work on.

And, uh, that's, that's the underlying
thing between, well, I look good on paper.

My positioning is really good.

Why aren't people hiring me?

Well, they just not, may not
trust the credibility there.

They may not understand your
experience, your track So

you want to prove it to them.

You want to show them.

Your.

Past projects you want to
show testimonials, social

proof, that sort of thing.

Your story, your history, your experience,
and your relevance to today's market, and

the way you do that is through content.

And we'll talk a little bit
more about that as well.

So you want to look at on paper number

Number two is you want to have
somewhere to invite people to.

And so.

In the book in the book,
book yourself solid.

Uh, I think it's Michael port talks about.

It might be Porter.

Michael port, I believe talks
about having a velvet rope policy.

And all that means is basically.

Biting people back to
something that you own.

Ideally that's free and that's valuable.

Something you can continue
the relationship with.

That doesn't, that's
not an immediate sale.

So you come across your target market.

You want to, you want to overwhelm
them in a positive way, not in an

overwhelming way, but you want to provide
an abundance of value to them upfront.

And invite them back to it.

And that could look like a free community.

Or a paid community, but ideally
there's a free component to this.

So you just you're casually.

You're not selling, you're just giving.

So come check out my website,
come look at my podcast.

Join my mailing list.

I write daily.

Where I write weekly.

Pre free, valuable content.

Maybe it's a free course.

So you want to have something to offer?

And that's what we want to create
some place to bring people back to

that you can continue the relationship
with because most people won't be

ready to do business with you today.

Anyway.

But what you do want is for them
to be exposed to your ideas.

That's the best way we can give people
a sample of what it's like to work

with us is by sharing our ideas and.

And letting people
taste them, try them on.

And so ideally that's free and ideally
you're inviting people back to that

frequently and then you're offering it.

It's a way of value.

And my preferred method, all
roads in my view should lead to

Rome, which is your mailing list.

That's your biggest asset.

That's where you'll sell more.

I'd rather have.

Uh, 5,000 people on my mailing
list than 50,000 people on Twitter.

And I guarantee you, I would sell
a lot more without email list size

versus the Twitter follower size.

And so that's the thing you'll own.

That's the permanent thing.

Everyone has email, we all
check them multiple times a day.

Don't need to explain that to you.

But email is the crux of it.

A lot of people live on LinkedIn
as their sole marketing strategy.

And that may work for you today.

And maybe it's worked for you
for the last two, three years.

But your email.

You have to be thinking about
getting people, incentivizing

people to come off of that platform.

Get on your mailing list or
for you, it might be Twitter

or for you, it might YouTube.

I don't know.

Pick your thing.

But email is the place that you're
going to own and that's where the

relationship's going to happen.

And you can then create content
either on your website or just

send it out to your email.

I personally like to put it on my website
and have that, send it to my email list.

And then distributed from there.

Maybe then I post an idea of it or part
of it, or the whole thing on LinkedIn,

or republish it on medium or sub stock
or wherever You can distribute it.

But ideally you want
to look good on paper?

As you interact with people, which we'll
talk about next, do you wanna invite them

back to something of value and you want,
ideally get them on your mailing list

and then you want to incentivize that.

So you, so you can give away some
free content free courses, that

Uh, but ideally that comes
in exchange for an email.

Maybe not always, but sometimes.

Because without that email, you've lost
the opportunity to serve people who aren't

ready But might be ready in five years
and you can't really depend on them.

To follow you on LinkedIn, where
they may or may not log in that day.

Everyone logs into email every

So emails where you want to go.

And we were framing this as.

Inviting them back to
something, something of value.

And the best way to grow your
email list that I've experienced.

And this is probably many is to
offer some sort of upfront incentive.

Join my mailing list.

I'll give you my template and how to do X.

Join my mailing list to get a free five
day email crash course in my case on

how to transition from execution to
advise we were working in education.

That's that's kind of the promise and
there's a crash course right on the

homepage that converts way better than.

If I just said dry my mailing
list and I'll email you every day.

Because people don't really want more
emails every day, but they want to

make, in my case, the transition from
execution to advisory and education work.

So you want to send people back
to something email, ideally, and

those can be community, your email,
us podcasts, and our free content.

And of course,

So that's that.

So number one is looking on paper.

Number two is have somewhere to
invite people to something of value.

And number three is you want to
be thinking in terms of then, so

assuming you've kind of built this,
like a, like a house or a cake you've

built the layers of foundation.

You have good stuff to invite people to.

Now you want to go out
and open conversations.

Number three is about opening
relationships and opening conversations.

So, what does that look like?

Well, number one is getting
on social media and a lot

of people live on LinkedIn.

And that's a great place right
now in the, in the B2B world.

Um, and for you, it might be Twitter.

Someone else might be Instagram or
Facebook, whatever your core skills are.

You want to, you want to
be opening relationships.

So what do you do?

So you publish on these platforms.

You, you.

Either distribute in part or in
whole, the content that you're

producing on your website.

I do believe a lot of your content
should org originate on your

website, live there as a permanent
asset, and you can repurpose it

for other social media platforms.

Two, is it just engaging with people on
their posts and just sort of following

your target market and being a member of
the community with no real angle, just,

you know, you're publishing content.

You're also engaging with other
people's content, which actually helps.

Typically helps the algorithm show
more content of yours to other people

and all kinds of good stuff happened.

So it's not just karma, like good stuff
happens when you engage with others.

And what you end up finding is
that certain people will stand out.

Certain people will.

Well, interact with you more.

And those might be opportunities
for people to put on a list and make

sure you see their posts so you can
continue to engage with them further.

Or it might be that you email
them or sorry, DM them on the

platform that they're on and just
say, Hey, what are you working on?

Or, Hey, I love what you're doing.

And just chat with them.

To build a relationship because look,
you may not get them as a client.

That's not your goal.

That's not why you DM people and people
can feel it when you're trying to

slide into their DMS and get a sale.

But they may refer you to someone.

They may bring two or three friends
to your thing that you might people

back to, to your mailing list,
to your email, to your podcast.

And that's really critical is that word
of mouth factor is going to be the thing

that's going to help you go much further.

You want your content to.

Speak to the people who are already
bought into you and your ideas.

And then have them be promoters of
your ideas, need to promote what

you're working on so that you grow
through a lot of word of mouth.

So your marketing is a
driver of word of mouth.

And we've seen in the data that
I've talked about this in my trust.

The membership program that I run,
uh, where we've analyzed our clients.

And a lot of people come from
referrals, even if it's marketing.

That leads to that referral.

I think if I stopped marketing,
I'd stopped getting referrals.

So we want to be opening
relationships as pillar.

Number And we want to also be thinking
in terms of, so yeah, social media,

DMS engagement, that sort of thing.

Um, but then also looking for who
are the influencers in the space

who has audiences of the people
that I want to interact with?

How do I open a relationship with them?

With no angle, no weirdness just,
Hey, like what you're doing, looks

like we serve a similar audience.

Just thought I'd connect and say, Hey.

Big fan of your work.

How's it going?

And eventually that might lead to
getting on one another's podcast or.

Maybe you do a webinar
for their audience or.

Maybe, maybe they introduce you to
people in their audience because you're

doing complimentary things that are non.

Non-competitive And so there's a lot
of ways to benefit from that, but

that's what I call the golden goose
strategy instead of looking for.

The individual golden eggs
look for the golden goose.

Look for the people who aggregate the
audience that you're trying to serve

and then try to serve those people.

And so I read a good book called
Person of influence and I read it

twice and it was really, it was great.

I'm going to come back to it because
I've forgotten more than I remember now,

but, and it wasn't that long ago, but
there was a lot of good information.

But one of the things that we're
saying is like, if you don't have.

Traction yet in your business.

One of the most important things you
can be doing is building relationships

with the influential people in
your niche and your target market.

So, um, we'll get into that further.

And I've talked about the golden
goose strategy before, and it's

really fundamental in my view.

I think it's the most leveraged
way to grow your business.

Getting on other people's
podcasts, getting in front of

their community with a webinar.

I talk a lot about getting, doing
webinars for SAS companies in your space.

So, and, you know, going to
conferences, et cetera, et cetera.

So there's a lot of that.

So that's your whole goal is just
to talk to people as Carl Richards

would say, play in traffic.

You know, get your word out there.

Make noise, talk, interact.

You never know who you're going
to bump into and the whole goal.

Is just to open relationships
and to develop them.

And you don't know what's
going to lead And that goal.

Isn't a, like, you really can't be
thinking transactionally or you have

to be thinking about relationships
and how do I contribute and how do I

bring them and offer them something.

So as you're opening these relationships,

If they're a good fit, invite
them into your community.

Invite them into your email list.

Tell them about a podcast episode
that would relate perfectly to

what they're doing right now.

And just, Hey, I thought
I'd send this to you.

This is Pretty much exactly what it
sounds like you would benefit from.

Just wanted to share with you or
share someone else's content, but have

somewhere to invite people back to.

And ideally you make your website
compelling to them so that they

want to be on your email list.

You don't even have to sell
it or push it very hard.

And so, you know, the last
part would be maybe outreach.

So is there a way to reach out to people?

And say, Hey, you know, you're in my
target market, except not those words.

Hey, I like what you're doing really big.

Find your I just thought I'd
reach out and say, you're doing

a great job with your marketing.

Uh, if I can ever be of any
assistance, let me know.

And sometimes that's enough to.

Start things off.

Uh, connecting with people on
LinkedIn and having those kinds of

conversations and sometimes being
a Not salesy, but Hey, I'm here.

If you need me, complimentary Um,
And so there's other ways to do all

this stuff, but I just wanted to
kind of give you the big buckets.

I teach more of this stuff and the
mind share the mind trust, which

is the, the membership that I have.

And we talked about this at
least once a month, about how to

grow and how to get new clients.

And we go into way more detail about it.

You're welcome to join if you want.

The whole point of it
is like an exercise gym.

It's not the boring kind, but
like more like a gymnastics gym.

I was talking to someone about this today.

And so everyone's there doing.

Exercise trying things
out, playing, having fun.

You know, testing new
ideas, implementing things.

And their business and then
chatting with others about it.

And so that's the whole point.

It's like a place where you go and.

And, uh, you know, Enjoy.

The creative process that is
creating your expertise business.

So I teach all that stuff in there.

We just opened up a new once a month.

We're going to have conversations
around creating knowledge products.

So stay tuned for that.

Uh, it's an over enterprise.

So check that out if you want.

But.

This is my invitation to you.

And on a meta level to join a paid thing.

And so that's kind of your next level.

You're going to have things, you But
in order for me to have permission

to invite you to pave thing,
without feeling weird about it, I

need to give you something first.

And that's what we were talking about

So number one is looking at on paper.

Have a clear niche solve a queer problem.

Look, credible.

Prove your expert experience.

Show proof.

Demonstrate.

You know, the credibility of your
offer of your ability to solve the

problem in as low risk as possible.

Include guarantees.

If you have to all those
things to look good on paper.

On your website, ideally have someone to
invite somewhere, to invite people, to and

give them an abundance of content, which
is basically a sample of your expertise.

And if you've ever gone grocery
shopping and tried something and then

You know how powerful samples can be.

So.

Invite people back to somewhere, look at
on paper, invite people back to somewhere,

offer them an abundance of value.

Aimed open relationships.

I think longterm nothing's
going to happen overnight.

You know, connect with people on social
media, engage with people, comment.

Share.

DM people who are engaged with you.

See how they're doing.

Maybe they want to chat
with you at a deeper level.

Just talk to people at the end.

People.

Um, look for those golden gooses.

Look for those influencers.

We'd key person of influence.

It's a great book.

Might help spawn some thinking around
And do outreach of you have to.

Uh, I ideally don't want
to live on the outreach.

Level, but if you've done
the other things, right.

Outreach can work really well.

Hey, I've got a course on this.

Just one.

Just want to share with you.

It's.

It normally you.

Maybe it's just free and maybe you
give it to your marketing manager or.

So-and-so and let them, let them do it.

It's there for you when you
want and give, give, give, give.

That's it.

Those are the big three pillars.

And if you're missing any

Then there's going to
be kind of holes there.

You're going to wonder why
you're not getting traction.

A lot of people will focus too much
on say LinkedIn or Twitter, and don't

really have a, say a web presence or
don't have somewhere to invite people to.

And so there's not enough time, not
enough ability to foster a relationship

on a platform you don't really own.

It takes a long, long time.

So really want to invite people in, give
them a reason to get on your mailing list.

Ideally.

Uh, and then lead into other
free stuff and then eventually.

You can tell them something,
you can offer something, you

can invite them to a paid thing.

Like my membership.

Uh, and so that's it.

I just want to share that with you,
if you're missing any of those, those

things, now's the time to do it.

Do you look at it on paper so
that if I referred someone to

you in your target market, you'd
be an obvious choice on paper.

And I would, de-risk my referral.

Cause at least you look at on paper,
like no one ever got fired for RBM.

And then when they talk to you,
do you have somewhere to invite

them to, to, to warm them up?

Because they're still a cool referral.

Cool.

Lead.

So, do you have a podcast?

Do you have a newsletter that's
worth subscribing to that?

They have to subscribe
I read almost daily.

And.

Yeah, that's part of the value prop.

I also have free content
and that sort of thing

Um, do you have a podcast?

All that stuff do have a community.

You know, these things are
easy to spin up, although.

Communities are for everyone.

And this is, it comes with the
big caveat on the community side.

They're hard.

There are hard to manage that.

Take a lot of work.

Uh, and.

It's not a guarantee.

So.

Do you look it on paper?

Do you have someone invite
them to, and are you It's

spending 30 to 50% of your week.

Looking for ways to open.

Relationships through distributing
your content, connecting

with people on social media.

Creating direct message conversations.

Looking for golden gooses and
ultimately reaching out to people in

your target market because you have
the other pieces in place, but if you

only focus on opening relationships,

We're distributing your content then.

There's really no way to warm people
up enough to drive them to a sale.

And so that's always
going to be a struggle.

So all these things take time.

My friends.

And so don't wait until you're desperate.

Keep building, keep building
your home, base your website.

Make it look super credible, super
focused on your target market and

the problem you're trying to solve.

And make it abundantly full of content so
that people have a reason to stick around.

And, you know, the content is.

Is free, but the implementation.

The system is what people pay you for.

Helping them actually get
it done in an organized way.

So hope that helps some friends.

Those are the three pillars of marketing
as I see them that I miss anything,

obviously there's way more, but I think
these are the big three buckets for

That's all I'll talk to you soon